Tris is nominated to be a Dauntless leader but turns it down, knowing that there are others who will use the power better than herself. Jeanine obviously has power and she keeps it through careful guard of information and limited access to full details. Evelyn, Tobias’s mother and leader of the factionless, gains power and tries to usurp the factions and impose a faction-less system. Insurgent is about power: who has power, who deserves it, who we should trust with power, and what to do once you have it. I’m so excited to see where Roth goes with the final book and I’m anticipating finding out what happens beyond the walls. The ending reminded me of a book I read way back in middle school, Running out of Time, where the main character discovers she’s living in a time capsule and that outside of her town, it’s not the 1700s but the 1990s. I’m too busy thinking about reading Allegiant to care. The summary I gave leaves out a bunch of things for the sake of simplicity and still probably doesn’t make much sense. I am much more enthusiastic about this series after reading Insurgent.

It would seem that everyone is living in a giant experiment that hopes to find those with the ability to problem solve from different points of view: the Divergent. While Tris fails, Tobias find the information and is able to broadcast it to the entire population. Without telling Tobias, Tris finds a way to avoid the Dauntless invasion, instead sneaking in with a team of four and trying to uncover the information. Jeanine is keeping it from the rest of the population because it will change the way society functions so entirely that nothing will never return to the way it was. Meanwhile, Tobias’s father knows that there is some secret information that Tris’s father died to protect. The Dauntless align themselves with the factionless in an attempt to eradicate the Erudite and their knowledge. Tris and Tobias fear that with this power, Jeanine will attack again and the Dauntless numbers are not high enough to fight back. Jeanine has had the rebel-Dauntless raid the Candor headquarters before they can escape, shooting a simulation chip into most Candor and some Dauntless. When they learn they are a bargaining chip the Candor leader will use to save his own pepole, the Dauntless return to their home. They try to find support in Amity to no avail and hide themselves temporarily among the factionless before seeking refuge among the Candor.

Starting off exactly where the first book ended, Tris and Tobias must find a way to defeat the Erudite and the rebel-Dauntless who have murdered half of the Abnegation.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth